Location at 120th and Main not meeting performance goals; employees will be transferred to other stores

The Safeway store on 120th Avenue in Broomfield will close in August leaving another shopping center anchor store vacant along 120th Avenue

Safeway, 6775 W. 120th Ave, which employs 54 people, will close Aug. 15. Employees, who were notified on Friday of the impending closure, will be moved to other Safeway stores in Colorado. The store is being closed because it is not meeting performance goals, according to the chain's corporate office.

The store "was not able to do as well as we had hoped it would do," said Kris Staaf, director of public affairs for Safeway's corporate office in Colorado.

Staaf said the company had been monitoring the store on 120th Avenue for more than a year, but decided sales were not meeting business expectations. The closure was not because of employee performance, she said.

"At a certain point, it doesn't make sense to keep it open," she said.

Bo Martinez, Broomfield economic development director, said he is disappointed to hear about the closure. Broomfield is working to fill the space with a new anchor store, he said.

Safeway "will be part of the conversation about what might happen, whether to lease or sell the property" to a new tenant, Martinez said.

Safeway owns the 66,000-square-foot space and the attached parking lot, he said.

The store, which opened in 1992 after moving from its longtime location on Midway Boulevard, will leave a major anchor vacancy in the shopping center. The store has been in Broomfield for at least 50 years, according to longtime employee Fred Allard, who celebrated his 50th anniversary with Safeway in March.

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Staaf said the Safeway closure was "a business decision" and is not related to the March announcement that Cerberus Capital Management would merge the Safeway supermarket chain with Albertson's supermarket stores.

There is another Safeway store in Broomfield at 144th Avenue and Lowell Boulevard.

The announcement about Safeway's closure on 120th Avenue comes just after Hobby Lobby on the northeast corner of 120th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard announced it will move to Thornton sometime in 2015.

Hobby Lobby, just down the road from Safeway, is the last large anchor retailer in the Broomfield Plaza shopping center. Hobby Lobby's absence will mean both of the shopping center's big-box anchor stores will be empty.

The Broomfield Plaza shopping center's other large storefront was formerly the home of Kmart, which closed in 2012. The 89,390-square-foot building is still vacant.

Though Safeway will leave a hole at its the shopping center at 120th Avenue and Main Street, employees said they do not expect to lose their jobs.

An employee, who did not give a name because Safeway workers are not allowed to speak to the media, said workers were told they would be connected with jobs at other Safeway stores.

Yet the employee said workers are worried other Safeway stores might close, or that managers at new stores might not want to keep the transferred employees.

On Monday, some shoppers at Safeway said they were upset about the closure.

One regular shopper, Jim Fisher, said he had noticed some of the store shelves were emptier than usual and overheard an employee informing another shopper about the situation.

In the past few years, he saw a drop in the number of shoppers he saw in the store, and only a few checkout lanes were open, he said.

The closure is "definitely going to force people to change their shopping habits," he said.

Another shopper, Vern Bingham, said his family is not happy to change their regular grocery shopping routine.

"We hate that it's closing," he said.

Retailers in the Safeway shopping center also are uneasy, but are waiting to see what happens to their businesses after Safeway closes.

Bobbie McAfoose, manager at the neighboring Sally Beauty Supply, said it is not clear whether her hair care store will suffer after Safeway leaves. She hopes shoppers will still come into her store and other neighboring businesses, even if shoppers do not have grocery shopping to do.

"It will definitely affect the whole area. People run into the grocery store and pick up things for their kids to eat," she said. "But the biggest thing is the people who work there, and we just hope they all get new jobs."

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